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About this blog

The build of my former HOn3 layout (the M-K & Eastern RR), now an On30 layout and some excursions into the art of modeling.

Entries in this blog

Part 30: Railroad painting

Here is my latest, made today . I find these very enjoying to make. Size 6" by 6". Acrylic on canvas. Original photo by Kevin Burkholder.     Source: Railway art, show us your work :-)
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Part 51: Pool Hall and Bordello

Thomas Yorke's kit of the "Pool Hall and Bordello" in HO scale. Finished!   Front   Primed the castings with grey and started the stone color.   I paint the stones with a light ochre.           The floor: I used the Vallejo wood paint set.   Looks nice when dry.   The fronts are very time consuming to build, as they need to be built to fit.     Interior wall for the stair well.   Most of the building assembled.   The rooms are lit up with SMD LEDs  
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Part 41: The Minturn stn.

At the local narrow gauge convention, I bought a Detail associates kit for the "Foothill station". The kit is sold out since many years, so I guess it could be hard to find another one.... It is a mixed media, but mostly wood, kit with plastic windows and doors. The building is made for two levels of terrain which I will use to serve two railroads. A standard gauge railroad on the upper level, and a HOn3 narrow gauge on the lower. A bit like John Allen did with Corsa on the G&D. So, he
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Part 9: The Shay´s new clothes

Hi again, I have had the rebuilt Shay (from earlier in the Blog) sitting on my table for a while now. I decided it was time to finish it . I repainted almost all of it and applied my Custom made decals. I also took the time to adjust the driveshaft as well. It runs really good now, and I hope the looks do it justice too :     I made this as well:   I think it worked out well.
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Part 44: 3D printing and model railroading.

My latest build: A Stamp mill in HO scale for my HOn3 layout. I've made it from plans in the "Old wood and stone buildings​" book. I CAD converted the drawn plans and as I have a 3D printer, I printed the timber frame, windows, doors, smoke stack and loading platform. I then covered the frame with Northeastern wood and the roof with cardboard covered with surgical tape. The stays for the smokestack are made of piano wire. The painting is acrylics on mineral spirits soaked wood...It makes it so
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Part 24: Fire engine!

I have some favorite "hate objects" in model railroading. Among other things, in terms of cliches .... For example, I would not like to have a church on the layout, as there is one in every old track book! The same applies to fire trucks .... Scenes of burning buildings with smoke generator and fire trucks with flashing lights ..... Not for me thanks . I happened to see a kit that almost converted me! A-(nother) Jordan-kit! An Ahrens Fox fire engine!?!. I just had to buy it ..... But I c
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Part 42: The Leadville house

Hi all, this is the latest build for my layout: CM's Leadville house! It was a real joy to build, and the mfg delivered the missing parts very swiftly (thanks!). I think it is a really good looking house that I wouldn't mind living in in 1:1 scale! My wife asked when we should start building it.... I have put real glass in all the windows, as I do on all my builds now. That will show the interiors really good when I have installed the lights in it. I will also build a small shed/garage
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Part 26: Loksound in the Boxcab

I just installed a ESU Loksound V4 micro in my Boxcab (see part 19 & 20), I used the OEM-speaker and I think it is just wonderful! There is noticeable improvement with this decoder compared with the 3.5. I bought the "empty" decoder and used my Lokprogrammer to install the sound. There is no soundfiles for a 1925 AGEIR Boxcab though.... But until I can find some nice sounds to make a soundproject of my own for it,I will use the sound that I installed as a "good enough" sound. The sound
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Part 18: The Blacksmith´s

I have been busy building a little Blacksmith shop of parts I had in the scrap box I "needed" a blacksmith by the track, and also I had a place that was perfect for a small(ish) building. I was sorting through the drawers and found an old Athearn-boxcar shell. I searched a bit online and found some pictures showing that it was quite common to use the decommissioned cars for sheds etcc. I also found an old playing Birthday card of the simplest model, I cut the speaker off and put a red LE
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Part 49: ready to paint a brass K-27

Westside models K-27 #460 in HOn3 dismantled in preparation for painting. These engines are like Swiss watches in their build quality. A pure joy to work with. I have prepared it for LED lights in both the front and rear headlights. It will get a Soundtraxx DCC sound decoder with a sugar cube speaker. The D&RGW #460 is a very odd engine. It was never modernized to piston valves, neither did it get a shortened smokebox. The version I'm painting will represent how it looked in the mid -30's. I
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Part 25: The history behind the RR.

I've had some thoughts about the freelance prototype when building a freelance layout as I´m doing .... When I started the construction of my layout, I envisioned it located in Maine somewhere (a bit vague ...) The name of the company came after the initials of me and my wife ;-) "M-K & E RR" = Michael & Kerstins Enskilda Järnvägar (Michael & Kerstins Private RR) Something has to give when you get to build the layout in the living room ... The "real" readout of the name
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Part 45: The Nevada City fire station, ancient kit built.

The HSM Nevada city fire station is done! It was a real challenge, mostly printed cardboard and some sticks of wood...but it went really okay I think. The bell tower has 28 parts.... Fiddly, to say the least. The interior light is a led mounted above the ceiling and has an orange colored diffuser to make it resemble gas light.                
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Part 27: Some weathered Swedish Ore wagons :-)

I had a client that had built these from kits (brass/white metal), and he wanted them painted and weathered. I primed and painted them with Phoenix paints, when I got to the decaling I got into trouble (wich didn't really show at this point......). There were 4 sheets of decals with most decals for all for cars on one sheet. The problem was that one of the sheets looked okay..... the rest looked "old"..... I applied them on a gloss surface and used both micro-set and micro-sol. There was som
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Part 23: The finished SW 7

Hi all, I took some new pics of the SW today. It is always hard to photograph black locomotives, but outdoors with some reflector screens, it works quite nice:     The rust on the sideframes with the soaked in oil is something I think worked out really great.   The custom made heralds is very nice to work with, really good quality! (thanks Jack)   All in all, I´m really happy with the result!       I have bought some figures for the layout: It was some need for
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Part 43: Sierra west Hotel.

Hi all! I just finished the build of Sierra wests Hotel in HO.   I made very few changes away from the manual. The peeling paint that is described in it was a bit too uncontrolled (sort of...). So I made the peeling paint by brushing on turpentine and then brush on Vallejo white paint.   I really like the way it turned out. Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think about it.                     I added a few figures.       Thanks for wa
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Part 28: More re-modeling of the layout.

I finally got hold of a kit that I've been "needing" for some time now It's the Heljan Brewery! Every time that it have been on the market, I have either felt no direct need for it, or haven't had the finances for it.... But now I took the plunge and bought it! When looking at the kit, I can see why it's so popular! So many parts and possibilitys.... I can not build it as it's intended to be (and why would I? ). I started with some "bulldozing" of the part of the layout that will be the
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Part 29: Painting The M-K & Eastern RR's Harbour at night

Hi again, some news from the M-K & Eastern RR. I just finished a painting that I made that depicts the harbour of my layout at night. This one is acrylic on canvas and is 12" x 16". I just have to do some "regular" paintings sometimes.     Source: The M-K & Eastern RR Harbour branch
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Part 46: Finally some layout building!

Finally some progress! I've actually managed to clear out the space for the layout. The room as it looked...   Insulation and moisture barrier installed.   Sheetrock... We all love to do some sheetrock and mud and sanding, and mud and sanding....   I rounded two of the corners. I made a backing from two layers of 1/8" hardboard.   I used 1/4" sheetrock that I wetted and bent to shape in the corners.   The backdrop is now the next step (almost..) I need to install the lighting firs
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Part 14: Pics of the finished 2-6-4t

Here are some pics of it as it stands today: Still some small details left.... This is how it looks like with the warm white LED on: I will add some small details on it and maybe a brakeman on the pilot. This was a real satisfying project, and I will try to find more scrap locos to modify in the future, any known ones out there? B)
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Part 15: Backdrop painting video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8TI503k9VA A little film I made today about backdrop painting and some landscape painting .   Source: Backdrop painting video
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Part 47: Photos of my favorite builds so far.

Some of my favorite builds in HO/HOn3.   Coach in HOn3       Combine in HOn3       Caboose in HOn3       Boxcar HOn3       Paper model scratchbuilt.       Miller & sons diorama.       Station close up.       Station       20 t Shay in HO       Bi-level station       Gas station   Leadville building in HO       Modified Lindbergh tug in HO       Weathered brass C-19 in HOn3       FSM engine house for HOn3        
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Part 8: Some details

I got some nice stuff from my wife this Christmas, a bunch of laser-cut fire escapes and park benches from "Imagine That Laser Art" in Canada. They were not exactly hard to build, but a bit time-consuming   A little paint on it, then it will look good.   I just had to see how it looks when it´s in place.   The Fire escapes is very nicely designed. I have looked at some of the others on the market, but they are too ornamented to be suited in a more basic setting. One pack
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